Plasma decay in the afterglow of a high-voltage nanosecond discharge in air

Journal Article · Wed Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Plasma Physics Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X12010011· OSTI ID:22047424

Aleksandrov, N L; Anokhin, E M; Kindysheva, S V; Kirpichnikov, A A; Kosarev, I N; Nudnova, M M ^[1]; Starikovskaya, S M ^[2]; Starikovskii, A Yu ^[3]

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1. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Russian Federation)
2. Ecole Polytechnique, route de Saclay (France)
3. Princeton University (United States)

The decay of air plasma produced by a high-voltage nanosecond discharge at room temperature and gas pressures in the range of 1-10 Torr was studied experimentally and theoretically. The time dependence of the electron density was measured with a microwave interferometer. The initial electron density was about 10{sup 12} cm{sup -3}. The discharge homogeneity was monitored using optical methods. The dynamics of the charged particle densities in the discharge afterglow was simulated by numerically solving the balance equations for electron and ions and the equation for the electron temperature. It was shown that, under these experimental conditions, plasma electrons are mainly lost due to dissociative and three-body recombination with ions. Agreement between the measured and calculated electron densities was achieved only when the rate constant of the three-body electron-ion recombination was increased by one order of magnitude and the temperature dependence of this rate constant was modified. This indicates that the mechanism for three-body recombination of molecular ions differs from that of the well-studied mechanism of atomic ion recombination.

• OSTI ID: 22047424
• Journal Information: Plasma Physics Reports, Vol. 38, Issue 2; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2012 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-780X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
AFTERGLOW
AIR
ATOMIC IONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRON-ION COLLISIONS
ELECTRONS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
MOLECULAR IONS
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
REACTION KINETICS
RECOMBINATION
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THREE-BODY PROBLEM